184 research outputs found
Field-induced decay of quantum vacuum: visualizing pair production in a classical photonic system
The phenomenon of vacuum decay, i.e. electron-positron pair production due to
the instability of the quantum electrodynamics vacuum in an external field, is
a remarkable prediction of Dirac theory whose experimental observation is still
lacking. Here a classic wave optics analogue of vacuum decay, based on light
propagation in curved waveguide superlattices, is proposed. Our photonic
analogue enables a simple and experimentally-accessible visualization in space
of the process of pair production as break up of an initially negative-energy
Gaussian wave packet, representing an electron in the Dirac sea, under the
influence of an oscillating electric field
Dirac Cat States in Relativistic Landau Levels
We show that a relativistic version of Schrodinger cat states, here called
Dirac cat states, can be built in relativistic Landau levels when an external
magnetic field couples to a relativistic spin 1/2 charged particle. Under
suitable initial conditions, the associated Dirac equation produces unitarily
Dirac cat states involving the orbital quanta of the particle in a well defined
mesoscopic regime. We demonstrate that the proposed Dirac cat states have a
purely relativistic origin and cease to exist in the non-relativistic limit. In
this manner, we expect to open relativistic quantum mechanics to the rich
structures of quantum optics and quantum information.Comment: Revtex4, color figures, submitted for publicatio
Determination of Carrier-Envelope Phase of Relativistic Few-Cycle Laser Pulses by Thomson Backscattering Spectroscopy
A novel method is proposed to determine the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of a
relativistic few-cycle laser pulse via the central frequency of the isolated
light generated from Thomson backscattering (TBS). We theoretically investigate
the generation of a uniform flying mirror when a few-cycle drive pulse with
relativistic intensity (I > 10^{18} {{\rm{W}} \mathord{/
{\vphantom {{\rm{W}} {{\rm{cm}}^{\rm{2}}}}}.
\kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {{\rm{cm}}^{\rm{2}}}}) interacts with a target
combined with a thin and a thick foil. The central frequency of the isolated
TBS light generated from the flying mirror shows a sensitive dependence on the
CEP of the drive pulse. The obtained results are verified by one dimensional
particle in cell (1D-PIC) simulations
The -dependence of the generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn integral for the deuteron, proton and neutron
The Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn (GDH) sum rule connects the anomalous contribution
to the magnetic moment of the target nucleus with an energy-weighted integral
of the difference of the helicity-dependent photoabsorption cross sections. The
data collected by HERMES with a deuterium target are presented together with a
re-analysis of previous measurements on the proton. This provides a measurement
of the generalised GDH integral covering simultaneously the nucleon-resonance
and the deep inelastic scattering regions. The contribution of the
nucleon-resonance region is seen to decrease rapidly with increasing . The
DIS contribution is sizeable over the full measured range, even down to the
lowest measured . As expected, at higher the data are found to be in
agreement with previous measurements of the first moment of . From data on
the deuteron and proton, the GDH integral for the neutron has been derived and
the proton--neutron difference evaluated. This difference is found to satisfy
the fundamental Bjorken sum rule at GeV.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
Nuclear Polarization of Molecular Hydrogen Recombined on a Non-metallic Surface
The nuclear polarization of molecules formed by recombination
of nuclear polarized H atoms on the surface of a storage cell initially coated
with a silicon-based polymer has been measured by using the longitudinal
double-spin asymmetry in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering. The
molecules are found to have a substantial nuclear polarization, which is
evidence that initially polarized atoms retain their nuclear polarization when
absorbed on this type of surfac
Flavor decomposition of the sea quark helicity distributions in the nucleon from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering
Double-spin asymmetries of semi-inclusive cross sections for the production
of identified pions and kaons have been measured in deep-inelastic scattering
of polarized positrons on a polarized deuterium target. Five helicity
distributions including those for three sea quark flavors were extracted from
these data together with re-analyzed previous data for identified pions from a
hydrogen target. These distributions are consistent with zero for all three sea
flavors. A recently predicted flavor asymmetry in the polarization of the light
quark sea appears to be disfavored by the data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
First Measurement of the Tensor Structure Function of the Deuteron
The \Hermes experiment has investigated the tensor spin structure of the
deuteron using the 27.6 GeV/c positron beam of \Hera. The use of a tensor
polarized deuteron gas target with only a negligible residual vector
polarization enabled the first measurement of the tensor asymmetry \At and
the tensor structure function \bd for average values of the Bj{\o}rken
variable and of the squared four-momentum transfer . The quantities \At and \bd are found to be
non-zero. The rise of \bd for decreasing values of can be interpreted to
originate from the same mechanism that leads to nuclear shadowing in
unpolarized scattering
Transverse-target-spin asymmetry in exclusive -meson electroproduction
Hard exclusive electroproduction of mesons is studied with the
HERMES spectrometer at the DESY laboratory by scattering 27.6 GeV positron and
electron beams off a transversely polarized hydrogen target. The amplitudes of
five azimuthal modulations of the single-spin asymmetry of the cross section
with respect to the transverse proton polarization are measured. They are
determined in the entire kinematic region as well as for two bins in photon
virtuality and momentum transfer to the nucleon. Also, a separation of
asymmetry amplitudes into longitudinal and transverse components is done. These
results are compared to a phenomenological model that includes the pion pole
contribution. Within this model, the data favor a positive
transition form factor.Comment: DESY Report 15-14
Evidence for Quark-Hadron Duality in the Proton Spin Asymmetry
Spin-dependent lepton-nucleon scattering data have been used to investigate
the validity of the concept of quark-hadron duality for the spin asymmetry
. Longitudinally polarised positrons were scattered off a longitudinally
polarised hydrogen target for values of between 1.2 and 12 GeV and
values of between 1 and 4 GeV. The average double-spin asymmetry in
the nucleon resonance region is found to agree with that measured in
deep-inelastic scattering at the same values of the Bjorken scaling variable
. This finding implies that the description of in terms of quark
degrees of freedom is valid also in the nucleon resonance region for values of
above 1.6 GeV.Comment: 5 pages, 1 eps figure, table added, new references added, in print in
Phys. Rev. Let
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